Innocence Again

Have you ever looked around, seen a place labeled “Young Forever Salon” and wondered why we are so obsessed? That’s right OBSESSED! Our culture is insane with it; What is the secret of youthful vitality? Is it the latest hair style? The most permanent dyes? The best work out instructor? What is the secret to healthful amounts of energy? Is it how often you exercise, what you eat? Just good luck?

All of these things may make a difference, especially for the outward condition of ourselves, but the real secret to staying young forever is a heart of innocence. It is hope. It is believing the best of people. It is looking for beauty in the simple things. It is feeling the pleasure of simply breathing in and out. It is looking around with compassion at the rest of humanity, knowing that we are all in the same boat; pointing them to the rescue ship.

(Of course culture wouldn’t want you to believe that because they would lose at least 50% of their customers!)

An older friend of mine told me once; you don’t feel your age. Not really. She said that three weeks before her mother died she looked at her and said, “I still feel nineteen on the inside.”

We weren’t meant to die here. Our souls have always been meant to live forever. And when God created the first man and the first woman, there was no need for death, because they could live forever in purity and Innocence. But they both longed for that which they did not know; the dangerous, the unfamiliar, the forbidden; the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They lost their innocence. Their disobedience forced God to banish them from the garden, and their sin caused them to be banished from Himself. But He had a plan, He would give them innocence again.

Jesus; the most innocent of human beings; God incarnate, died a sinner’s death so that we could be given innocence again.

Wear it loud; wear it proud. If you are among the redeemed, you are counted as INNOCENT. Yes. Innocent. That does not mean that we ignore what is around us; on the contrary, this world we live in calls us to be constantly on our toes, looking for ways to get involved and to show God’s love to the people around us. But you have been given a heart of innocence; a heart that can look at the people around you and see them with clear and unjaded perception: and when you start to do that… well then, you start to see a little more like Jesus. The Lamb. The Innocent one. The Redeemer. The one whose blood washes us white as freshly fallen snow.

The problem is that even as believers we let our selves get covered in the muck and gunk of sin and the lies that tell us that we aren’t innocent; that we don’t belong to the redeemer. Or maybe someone has hurt you, maybe you are bitter and ragged around the edges. Maybe you get so caught up looking at the darkness before you that you forget the light behind you.

This is my humble encouragement: Do not let it take your Innocence. Ahhhbuuttgeeeeehahhhh! NO. Do Not Let It Take Your Innocence. It is the way we live forever; it is the way we give hope and do much good. It is the way we become salt and light to a rotting world, swallowed up by darkness. We have hope. We see. We believe. We love. We are innocent because of Him; and that is all that the world ever needed to know.

About Me

Hello! I’m Gracie. I am a wife, a mama, and a follower of King Jesus. I love my garden and my goats and all things #homesteadyish. I love being a small-home maker, because small houses take less time to clean, and that means I have more time to spend on my tiny farm of a backyard. I love the flexibility of being a stay at home Mommy & Writer. As a general rule, if I'm too busy to make jam, then I'm too busy. This to me says, I value a full life, but not a full calendar, and I love to take life in season. Farm/Garden to table cooking is my absolute favorite, and I don't mind a little dirt under my fingernails. There's nothing better than a harvest; literally and figuratively.
And that's why I'm here, to encourage you to cultivate a fruitful life; whatever that looks like for you with your gifts, in your season, for the Glory of the God who loves you and made you. Won't you come along with me? I promise, we'll walk slowly.